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ENDHOSTENT(3P)             POSIX Programmer's Manual            ENDHOSTENT(3P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the  corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
       endhostent, gethostent, sethostent - network host database functions
SYNOPSIS
       #include <netdb.h>
       void endhostent(void);
       struct hostent *gethostent(void);
       void sethostent(int stayopen);

DESCRIPTION
       These functions shall retrieve information about hosts.  This  informa-
       tion  is  considered  to  be  stored in a database that can be accessed
       sequentially or  randomly.  The  implementation  of  this  database  is
       unspecified.
       Note:  In  many  cases  this database is implemented by the Domain Name
              System, as documented in RFC 1034, RFC 1035, and RFC 1886.

       The sethostent() function shall open a connection to the  database  and
       set the next entry for retrieval to the first entry in the database. If
       the stayopen argument is non-zero, the connection shall not  be  closed
       by a call to gethostent(), gethostbyname(), or gethostbyaddr(), and the
       implementation may maintain an open file descriptor.
       The gethostent() function shall read the next entry  in  the  database,
       opening and closing a connection to the database as necessary.
       Entries  shall  be  returned  in  hostent structures. Refer to gethost-
       byaddr() for a definition of the hostent structure.
       The endhostent() function shall close the connection to  the  database,
       releasing any open file descriptor.
       These  functions need not be reentrant. A function that is not required
       to be reentrant is not required to be thread-safe.
RETURN VALUE
       Upon successful completion, the gethostent() function  shall  return  a
       pointer  to a hostent structure if the requested entry was found, and a
       null pointer if the end of the database was reached  or  the  requested
       entry was not found.
ERRORS
       No errors are defined for endhostent(), gethostent(), and sethostent().
       The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
       None.
APPLICATION USAGE
       The gethostent() function may return pointers to static data, which may
       be overwritten by subsequent calls to any of these functions.
RATIONALE
       None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.
SEE ALSO
       endservent(),  gethostbyaddr(),  the   Base   Definitions   volume   of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <netdb.h>
COPYRIGHT
       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003  by  the  Institute  of
       Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
       is the referee document. The original Standard can be  obtained  online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group                  2003                       ENDHOSTENT(3P)